Installation

Hardware

Connect the backup battery to the board. The backup battery is packaged with the ODROID-H2, and it will maintain BIOS settings as well as the Real Time Clock on the board.

Install DDR4 memory cards as desired up to 32GB (2 x 16GB). Although ODROID-H2 supports dual channel memory, a single memory card can be used. For best performance, install two identical memory cards of the same capacity. (i.e 2 x 4GB for Max.8GB instead of 1 x 8GB)

Connect any additional peripherals such as a display monitor, keyboard, and mouse. ODROID-H2 doesn’t support a PS-2 type keyboard or mouse. Only USB or Bluetooth keyboard and mouse are supported.

For desktop like use, a display device can be connected with HDMI and/or DisplayPort. Operating system support is required for dual display use.

Single or dual ethernet (10/100/1000Mbps) cables can be connected for network support.

Finally, connect the DC power adaptor to the DC jack at the rear side of the ODROID-H2. For high performance computing and/or multiple storage devices, at least a DC 15V/4A power adaptor is strongly recommend.

For more detailed installation requirements, please refer to the hardware specification. Also, it is strongly recommended to install and keep the ODROID-H2 in a secure hardware case to protect it from environmental hazards.

Entering BIOS menu

At the very first boot after the ODROID-H2 hardware is assembled, the BIOS will be entered immediately. You can set hardware configuration options and save them. The BIOS settings will be maintained until the backup battery is disconnected or discharged.

You can use the DEL key while booting to enter the BIOS manually.

Operating system

No operating system license or installation media are included in the ODROID-H2 package. This implies that you must purchase the license of the operating system you wish to install or download a free operating system such as Debian or Ubuntu.

In order to install an operating system, you will need an installation media such as a USB stick or CD/DVD. These can be purchased at a store or downloaded from the website of the provider and written to a USB stick or CD/DVD media.

To install from CD/DVD media, you have to connect a USB CD/DVD drive to a USB host port on ODROID-H2. Installation media will need to be created using another computer and the appropriate software.

Burning an operating system to USB stick

This section assumes that you will install an operating system from a USB stick and are going to burn an operating system image to the USB stick on another computer. There are various software depending on operating system, but this section uses a popular burning software called “Etcher” that supports multiple operating systems and is easy to use.

You can download the “Etcher” software from its official site and install it in your computer. Then, open “Etcher” once the installation is completed.

Before burning an installation image, you must have the image as a file on your computer. If not, you must purchase or download the image from the provider. For example, you can download the Ubuntu image from Official Canonical Ubuntu images. We tested Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and 18.10 images. Ubuntu 18.10(ubuntu-18.10-desktop-amd64.iso) had newer Linux Kernel with improved video drivers and it gave us better GPU performance.

Flash Ubuntu to your USB stick

Open Etcher.

Click “Select Image” button and select the downloaded OS image.

Etcher selects a USB stick to flash automatically. If not, or if you want to use a different drive, click “Change” and select one.

Click the “Flash” button to start the flashing and verification process.

Installing an operating system from an installation media

The instruction in this section can be used to install an operating system from a USB stick or CD/DVD media or when you want to switch an operating system installed on storage attached to the ODROID-H2 while changing the boot priority.

The procedure to install an operating system varies depending on the operating system, but it’s no different between a regular personal computer and the ODROID-H2. Therefore, you may also need to contact the operating system provider if you encounter any installation failures.

After installing an operating system is completed, the operating system will eventually ask you to remove the installation media from the ODROID-H2 and reboot. On the next boot, if everything is fine, the operating system you have installed will appear.

Installable boot media on the ODROID-H2

The ODROID-H2 can have multiple storage devices that an operating system can be installed on. These storage devices can be connected to the ODROID-H2 at the same time and an operating system can be installed and select to use during booting.

eMMC (Embedded Multimedia Card)

SATA HDD/SSD drive #1

SATA HDD/SSD drive #2

M.2 NVMe

The major difference between these storage devices is the I/O bandwidth. One is slower or faster than others because of the different hardware bus or interface specifications.

Selecting an installation media on boot

The BIOS on the ODROID-H2 always tries to load bootable images from the storage as configured in the BIOS. For example, you can set SATA port 2 to load the operating system rather than SATA port 1 by setting this order in the BIOS.

In order to boot a USB stick or CD/DVD removable drive, you can enter the BIOS and change the boot priority.

Instead of entering the BIOS menu to select a boot device, the “F7” key can be used at power on or reboot. This will present a menu with the list of connected storage devices and you can select one of them to boot from.